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Archive for the ‘Projects / Repairs’ Category

Commodore SX64 (USA/NTSC) Repair

May 27th, 2014 No comments
Testing Game

Gallery:

Commodore SX64 (USA/NTSC) Repair.

Defect:

  • Black screen and then noise of a misaligned drive (don’t read anything).

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced 1 x 906114 PLA (UE4)

Other things:

  • Aligned the Floppy Drive using the original copy of the Free Spirit Software Drive Alignment.
  • Removed the broken switch to disable the write protection and disconnected a LED on the front side of the SX64.
  • Connected the sensor wires cut.
  • Cleaning the Floppy Drive.

Apple IIc Rom v4 Upgrade & Repair

May 26th, 2014 1 comment

Apple IIc Rom v4 Upgrade & Repair.

Defect:

  • The second RAM in the auxiliary memory is faulty.

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced 1 x RAM 4264 (ARD1)

Upgrade:

  • Apple IIc ROM upgraded to the latest version V4 (MON)

Download:

Commodore PET(CBM) 3032 Repair

May 25th, 2014 No comments

Commodore CBM/PET 3032 Motherboard Repair.

Defect:

  • Garbled screen and then “Illegal Quantity Error” message or 31 Bytes free

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced 1 x NE555 (A2)
  • Replaced 2 x Unstable RAM 4116 (I2/I3)
  • Replaced 1 x 74LS153 (E4)

Atari Disk Drive 1050 Repair

May 25th, 2014 No comments

Atari Disk Drive 1050 #1

Defect:

  • SIO bus unresponsive.

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced 1 x LM3086N (U1)

Atari Disk Drive 1050 #2

Defect:

  • SIO bus unresponsive + no reset cycle of the Disk drive on poweron.

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced 1 x RAM-I/O-Timer (RIOT) 6532 (U7)

Commodore 64 ASSY 250407 Empty PCB

May 3rd, 2014 4 comments
Commodore 64 ASSY 251137 Empty PCB

Gallery:

Commodore 64 ASSY 250407 Empty PCB + some Working components.

Apple Monitor IIgs (A2M6014Z) Focus problem workaround.

April 26th, 2014 No comments

Apple Monitor IIgs (A2M6014Z) Focus problem walkaround. Apple Monitor IIgs (A2M6014Z) Focus problem walkaround.

The horizontal measuring was made calculating the ledge at the base of the monitor.

Unfortunately, this monitor suffers from a serious problem of image quality.

The monitor become very hot and the adjustment resistance (trimmer) of the Focus controls that is inside the flyback loses its original value.

After nearly an hour of operation, the image becomes blurred and we must adjust the trimmer of the focus located inside the monitor, that’s why i have made this modification to the external case of the monitor.

The flyback is NOT longer exists as a spare parts.

Datanetics Apple Keyboard Fix.

April 26th, 2014 No comments

Datanetics Apple Keyboard Fix Datanetics Apple Keyboard Fix

Datanetics Apple Keyboard Fix.

After a few cold solder joints redone the keyboard works almost perfectly.

Todo:

  • The “V” key is totally dead.
  • The keys are a bit tired, don’t return always in the original position.

Overall is fine.

Datanetics Apple Keyboard *update*

I found a temporary solution for the tired keys they don’t return always in the original position. I have put a small spring (see the picture). Now the keys works correctly.

About the “V” key completely dead, i have desoldered it and i have tried to spray a air into the slots without having any results, so i have tried a extreme thing, i have used the key switch like a whistle. ;-D I have blown inside several times, the result is the key switch now are working again. I have made the same thing for the “right arrow”.

Macintosh Plus (Sad Face) Repair

April 25th, 2014 1 comment

Macintosh Plus Repair Macintosh Plus Repair

Macintosh Plus repair.

Defect:

  • Mac sad face with error code not readable.

Replaced parts:

  • 2 x ROM (342-0341-B / 342-0342-A) replaced with two EPROM 27C512 (pinout compatible)

Note:

All roms that i have found on the net or sent by friends are not working.
I had to do a dump of the Rom of my Macintosh Plus and at this point everything has worked immediately.

Download: Macintosh Plus ROM (27C512 Splitted) (1531)

Apple IIe STK Asic Clone (Orange) Repair

April 25th, 2014 3 comments

Apple IIe STK Asic Clone (Maybe Orange) repair.

Defect:

  • Short-circuit on all voltages.
  • Black/Garbage screen.

Replaced parts:

  • 10 x Tantalum Capacitor 4.7uf (replaced with Electrolytic Capacitors)
  • 3 x RAM OKI M3764A-15 in Short-circuit.
  • 1 x ROM 1 (EPROM 27128)

Note:

I have to thank immensely my friend Alessandro Polito for providing me the dump of the ROM 1 of the Orange (Apple IIe Asic Clone)

Download:

Commodore 64 ASSY 250425 Empty PCB

April 24th, 2014 1 comment
Commodore 64 ASSY 250425 Empty PCB

Gallery:

Commodore 64 ASSY 250425 Empty PCB + some Working components.

Example of replacing exhausted Electrolytic Capacitors

April 22nd, 2014 No comments
Example of Replacing Electrolytic Capacitors

Gallery:

Example of replacing exhausted Electrolytic Capacitors.

My advice is always to replace all capacitors although at first view does not seem exhausted with acid leakage.

Here is something to repair …

March 28th, 2014 No comments

Someone has to repair these computers! ;-D

In the photo you can see: Commodore 64(C) motherboard, Commodore Amiga 500 motherboard, Commodore Amiga 600, Sinclair QL, Commodore 128 motherboard and some Amiga keyboard.

Repaired for a friend a Commodore CBM 8296 Motherboard

March 12th, 2014 1 comment

Repaired for a friend a Commodore CBM 8296 Motherboard.

Defect:

  • Black screen of death without startup beep.

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced PLA [UE6] with a OTP EPROM 27C512R 70ns + Adapter.
  • Replaced PLA [UE5] with a original one MOS 324744-01
  • Replaced [UC8] 3-State Driver Bus MOS 65245 (74LS245)

Selcom/Jen Lemon II (Keyboard repair & Cleaning)

March 5th, 2014 3 comments

I have received a Lemon II computer (Apple ][+ / Europlus Clone) in a good cosmetic condition but with a serious problem at the keyboard, here below defects and repairs that has been made.

Cleaning comparison (before / after):

Gallery of the repair:

Defects:

  • First problem: When a keyboard key is pressed is always displayed the same character, in this case the character “O”
  • Second problem (which i have only noticed after solving the first one): The keyboard works correctly, all characters are displayed in the correct way, but sometimes the character displayed does not match with the key pressed. Example: when pressing many times the letter “I”, after a while is displayed the character “Y” and after a while it show the right character “I”.

Components Replaced:

I have to thank my friend Luca that called me to inform me that there was still a piece of the SMC KR2376-ST available in the store.

Repairing a defective Olivetti M21

February 23rd, 2014 5 comments
Olivetti M21

Autopsy:

Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other business products such as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, province of Turin, the company has been part of the Telecom Italia Group since 2003.

The primacy of the first PC can be assigned to Olivetti thanks to Programma 101, which was produced in 1964 and had a big success in the U.S. market.

Olivetti’s first modern personal computer, the Olivetti M20, featuring a Zilog Z8000 CPU, was released in 1982. In 1983 Olivetti introduced the M24 and in 1984 the M21 (the first and last of transportable of Olivetti), a clone of the IBM PC using DOS and the Intel 8086 processor (at 8 MHz) instead of the Intel 8088 used by IBM (at 4.77 MHz).

The M24 was sold in North America as the AT&T 6300. Olivetti also manufactured the AT&T 6300 Plus, which could run both DOS and Unix.

The comparison (before / after):

Repairing & things before of the Cleaning:

Defects:

  • Mirror image.
  • Sometimes garbled image with using the ISA Bus.

Replaced parts:

  • Replaced a 74LS245N on the motherboard side.
  • Replaced a 75LS244N on ISA expansion Module.
  • Removed the battery for the Realtime Clock.

Upgrade:

  • Bios v1.36 to v1.43 (latest).

source: wikipedia